Trade Arabia
Manama, May 14: Bahrain could face a shortage of nurses soon, an official has warned.
The profession does not attract Bahraini women any more and expat nurses are increasingly refusing to renew their contracts due to low salaries, Bahrain Nursing Society president and College of Health Sciences emergency nursing programme head Rula Al Saffar told our sister paper Akhbar Al Khaleej.
'The situation is really alarming,' warned Rula Al Saffar, as Bahrain joined the world in marking the International Nurses Day.
She also said nurses elsewhere in the Gulf were paid almost BD1,000 - much higher than in Bahrain.
A World Health Organization (WHO) expert had voiced similar warning last month during a workshop on nursing in Bahrain.
The country needs to train its own nurses to meet increasing competition from overseas, WHO nursing and health policy consultant Fadwa Affara said earlier.